Chinese International Students Studying in America: A Michigan Case Study

• In Event: 1552 - Section on Asia and Asian America Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 min): Table 5: Global/Transnational Education

Abstract

The number of Chinese international students studying in the United States have increased dramatically after the Chinese government did away with its restriction on the self-financed Chinese students studying aboard in 1985. From 1999 to 2018, the number of Chinese international students studying in America has increased from 54,466 to 363,341. China is now the largest single source of international students studying in the United States. This research explored the motivation and experiences of this student group with 20 in-depth interviews. Through the stories of these twenty undergraduate Chinese students, I noticed the impact of the One-child Policy that was in place from 1979 to 2013, the economic reform took place in China started in 1978 led by Chinese President Deng Xiaoping, and the rise of the information technology on these particular students. The special family structure created by the One-child Policy and the financial stability brought about by the Chinese Economic Reform have made studying abroad available for many Chinese middle-class families. At the same time, the popularization of the Internet and the consumer electronic devices relieved the pain brought by the geographical separation. Thus, studying abroad became a family decision and the students carried it out with full family support – financially and emotionally. In comparison to the students that used to come to study in the U.S. from China prior to this period, these students who were born after 1978 had greater flexibility to choose their goals: greater capacity to choose whatever they wanted to study in college, and greater capacity to choose their careers after graduation.

Authors

• Zhuang Han, Cornell University

• Silvia Pedraza, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor